Can you hear the cheers from the Medical Marijuana community?! The Florida House of Representatives has officially repealed the ban on smokable medical marijuana. Today SB 182 has passed by a 101-11 vote! Flower is coming to Florida patients! No longer will patients be restricted by bureaucrats.
Sen. Gary Farmer summarizes the situation:
“Marijuana is now medicine in the state of Florida and how that medicine is administered should be between their doctor and that patient,” said Sen. Gary Farmer, D-Lighthouse Point.”
Sen. Bradley continues:
“We did what we thought was right for the health of the people of the state of Florida,” said Bradley, R-Fleming Island. “It’s time to move this discussion from Tallahassee to doctors’ offices around the state. “It’s medicine. Treat it as such. Take seriously your oath to do no harm.”
The final bill will allow doctors to recommend 2.5 ounces of smokable cannabis for a 35 day supply or 4 ounces for a 70 day supply.
Despite the progress, naysayers and ignorance of cannabis science remains.
“I believe it’s a gateway drug just like the opioid addictions we had that led to the use of heroin and fentanyl,” Stargel said. “Now we’re in a situation where if we do nothing the situation’s worse. We have basically little regulation.”
After certifying thousands of patients across Florida, we know this statement to be the exact opposite of the truth. We have dozens of video testimonials (see our YouTube channel here) stating that cannabis is the exit drug, not the gateway drug. Cannabis helps people replenish their endocannabinoid systems and re-establish homeostasis. In doing so, many patients are able to quickly and easily transition off of opiates, SSRI’s, blood pressure medication, and many other synthetic drugs. Does that sound like a “gateway drug” to you?
Watch the below video to hear from multiple patients who are living healthier, happier, and more productive lives thanks to Medical Marijuana. As we often say, “It’s about getting healed not high!”
Even the National Institute on Drug Abuse itself stated that, “the majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other ‘harder’ substances.”
“Just think about why we’re even debating smoking marijuana – I can only figure it’s because that’s the way it’s been used illegally forever,” said Perry, R-Gainesville, who voted against the measure. “When you burn that and inhale it, it causes cancer.”
Sen. Perry Donald might be surprised by the research of Donald Tashkin, MD, of UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine who recently studied the relationship between cannabis and cancer, “We did not find any evidence for an increase in cancer risk for even heavy marijuana smoking.” In the study, “heavy cannabis smoking” was defined as having smoked over 22,000 joints over a lifetime!
In fact, as previous blog posts have detailed, and many My Florida Green patients have testified, THC and CBD have both proven to possess powerful anti-cancer properties.
Other parts of the bill include $1.5 million a year for research, a parental notice requirement for patients under 18 to receive smokable medicine, and requiring doctors to tell patients under 18 the negative effects of smoking marijuana.
In 2018, Florida Medical Marijuana dispensaries dispensed more than 1.5 billion milligrams of products, and the state currently has more than 185,000 patients who’ve qualified for the treatment.
